The Electra Forums

I have an old Electra X120 that a friend gave to me a few years ago but it's been in the back of my closet pretty much ever since, as it is missing the brass nut. I had tried a few different nuts from other guitars a few years back but nothing fit quite right and I eventually forgot about it.

Can anyone tell me the dimensions of the X120's nut (Length, Height, Width, Groove spacing, etc.) so I can make my own, or perhaps a good alternative replacement for another guitar that would take little to no modifications to match the original's functionality. I have never actually seen what the original nut looks like so any pics would be great. I would like for it to look as close to the original as possible, but as long as the tuning/intonation functions correctly I'd be more than happy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Welcome to the Forum, nice 'Gift' man, Tom Presley tells us only like 400 of the Leslie West MPC's were produced. Here are the measurements I got from my caliper, you'll have to do the conversion because it's in hundredths of an inch, sorry!

Width: 1.69 inches
Width of neck is a hair bigger at 1.74 inches
Depth: .21 inches

Height is a little bit trickier as I'm not removing it, but at the edge of the neck (either E string) it was roughly .28 inches high (at fretboard), and you can see it has an arch to follow the radius of the fretboard, slightly higher in the middle. I haven't done any nut work because a decent set of files is well over a hundred bucks from stu mac. You should be able to get a brass nut blank for around $15, and my tech usually charges me like $20 to fit a nut and cut the string grooves. Best of luck, and show us some pics, one way or the other! Cheers, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Thanks a lot for the post, and the measurements of course. I'll add some pics soon. I had no idea there were so few Leslie West MPC's out there. I'll order a few different types of nut blanks right away and see what i can do. I've never used a guitar with a brass nut before so I'm excited to get it working.

If possible could u take measurements of the distance between two of the string grooves and the distance from the edge of the nut to the center of an E string groove? They may not be necessary, but every possible measurement can only make recreating an exact replica of the nut easier. My math for the string spacing said they should be about .28 inches apart, and I'm guessing about .14 inches from the edge of the nut to the 1st string. If your measurements are different from those numbers please let me know.

And a Big Thanks Again for the measurements, you've been very helpful

400, you say?! Gee, that's a lot....

... there were less than 200 XV-1 Ladies made!!

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

Seems like I remember some one getting a brass nut from All parts, may have been Thorney, not sure.

Heres a quick run down on nut making, theres a video and a few other instructions on getting the measurements.

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... _Rule.html

Doing like proendorser said is probable the easiest thing if you dont have the files.

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SlmGuy

I checked around a few sites but I haven't found any pre-made Electra nuts so far, unless one from another guitar is a perfect fit and I didn't notice. Thanks for the link. I've never made a brass nut before (or any nut for that matter) and I don't have files so I'm sure it'll help.